Where Energy Is Leading Me
The past two weeks have been filled with living, loving, leading, listening, and learning. In particular, learning what gives me energy and what I might want to try next. Below I share three moments that sparked my energy, with a few journal prompts to help you find your own.
Composing Music
My husband, daughter, and I spent a precious week with my family in Asheville, NC. My middle brother, a tenured counseling professor I hadn’t seen in person in ten years, introduced me to the amazing possibilities of Suno.com, a music generation app. The seven of us iterated through lyrics and style prompts over three days, resulting in a touching, highly personalized song that is my new favorite.
As a complete novice to song creation, when I got home, I wrote some tender lyrics about my Angel Ajax and then specified the style, voice, tone, and instrumentation that fit my interpretation. The resultant Suno-generated song was so unique, so “him,” and so perfect that I was in tears. Now I have lyrics I love and a way to hear what’s in my head as fully generated music.
Try this: If you had a magic wand, is there anything you wish you could do? What about that appeals to you? Flesh it out in as much detail as possible.
Grief Support Walks
The second moment came during a recent care-and-share grief-support walk Thursday in Shelton View Forest. A participant shared that she’d traveled all the way from Tacoma to see how I ran my event. She asked whether I might mentor her to offer similar trips for her branch. I hadn’t considered that a new pilot program – something I created to help ME find community – might also generate interest for others to do the same.
We enjoyed all the charms the forest revealed including moments at the Telephone on the Wind, free eggs from a local with chickens, and a lovely rainbow to close the event. A hiker pulled me aside to say she admired my vulnerability and courage to offer something unique and tender.
Try this: What do YOU need right now? Where do you find sparks of interest and energy? What might that lead to?
Rainy Hike of the Middle Fork
The third moment that stood out for me was during a rainy hike along the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie. The last time I’d done this trip was for my birthday backpack, so I was interested to see what it looked like in full-bloom fall two months later.
We enjoyed mushroom-hunting, puddle-dodging, story-swapping, and solitude – and although it rained the entire day, everyone returned to the cars soaking wet, but with big smiles on their faces. Hikers commented in their evaluations that what stood out was conversations, community, fun, and connection.
Following the Next Breadcrumb
And now that we are hours from November, I’m finding that breadcrumbs have led me naturally to a few goals I set at the beginning of the year. In January, I decided I’d like to find a way to offer online courses and in-person group classes. Instead of forcing a solution, I have tried to let them emerge naturally by following “energy breadcrumbs.”
On a walk yesterday, I thought of a possible path forward: to offer a unique “leader’s permission only” follow-up experience for those who have already participated in one of my Mountaineers conditioning classes. In this way, all attendees will already have some level of experience with the brain-based material we’ll dive deeper into. This also gives folks a way to ask questions about material they may or may not have started to use.
What Two Weeks Revealed
I already knew that I love helping people explore, experiment, and discover what works best for them. My excitement about all of my December offerings has grown directly from those experiences. But what’s more, I’m trusting that what gives me energy is the right path to follow.
Try this: Where in your life are excitement and energy giving you clues about your next logical step?
